Opening Statements
by Mischievious Kiss27
Summary: A set of drabbles, centered around their opening lines. Rating may change.
1. Guilt

**AN: And here we are, with me starting a new set of drabbles when I haven't even uploaded to GD. I'M SORRY! It's just...I've had absolutely NO inspiration for Diaries since that initial chapter, and I'm trying hard to find some.**

**About this new set: I'd like to credit Dream Trance for it, because she's the one who pointed me out to the website in the first place through her Tumblr post. These drabbles will all be written going off of the first lines, which come from the first line generator on writingexercises . co . uk. I got a few really good ones my first try, and thought 'why not'? These won't all center around the main three either; I'm trying to branch out onto the other characters. But for our first chapter, Danny will be the(sort-of) star.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom! If I had, there would've been far more Pompous Pep tendencies...**

**Opening line: "It was painful to watch her."**

**Characters: Valerie, Danny**

* * *

It was painful to watch her. To know that she was slowly drifting away from the girl she had once been.

Granted, that girl had never really been what he'd call "friendship material", but still. To know that she lived every day in a haze of anger and vengeance. To know that his enemy was supplying her with weapons meant to be used to a person twice her age, and definitely never with the recklessness she boasted. To know that, however much he'd never intended it, he'd accidentally ruined her "perfect" life, and set her on this road.

The Observants only knew how many times he'd tried to apologize, but it was useless; all she heard and all she saw were lies spewing from the mouth of another filthy ghost. From Public Enemy number 1. So he stopped trying to offer up explanations, and stopped trying to reason with her rage. But he'd never stop trying to be help her in any way he could.

Danny sighed, another tug on his arm bringing him back to his current job: playing Nasty Nat for the little snot-nosed brats hanging off him. The things he did for love...

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**Please review!~**


	2. Patience

**AN: I'm sorry I'm taking so long with the updates. I really have no excuse other than procrastination. That and trying to get used to my new classes.**

**I hope you enjoy this new chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I still definitely do not own Danny Phantom!**

**Characters: Jazz, Clockwork**

**Opening Line: "She hadn't meant to take so long."**

* * *

She hadn't meant to take so long. But then again, it wouldn't kill him to wait for a few more minutes. For a master of time, he sure had no concept of patience when it came to their...meetings.

'_Dates_,' her mind whispered. She brushed it off, dismissing the idea before it could take root for the millionth time. He was Danny's mentor, a trusted adviser and friend, whom she could go to in order to discuss Danny's mental health and possible therapeutic treatments for him to help deal with the stress, as well as someone who enjoyed discussing a great number of psychological topics with; their relationship was purely business.

It didn't have anything to do with the fact that she felt like all the air was being sucked from her lungs by the Fenton Weasel when he turned that mysterious smile towards her. Not one bit.

Jazz removed the medallion from her neck, stepping forward out of the gloom and making her way towards the figure staring into the large viewing glass in the middle of the room. Clockwork heard her approach and turned, the corners of his mouth lifting in an all-too familiar smirk.

It was just business as usual.

* * *

**Because I ship these two like crazy, adorable eggheads that they are.**


	3. Superficial

**AN: I know I said before I'd be branching out, but the next few chapters will most likely focus on Danny. I just keep getting prompts that are really fitting for him.**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Danny Phantom.~**

**Character: Danny**

**Opening Line: "His diary seemed superficial, only skimming the surface."**

* * *

His diary seemed superficial, only skimming the surface. Pages of worries about girls, about school, about life in general. The typical cares of a typical high school sophomore.

It was when you read between the lines that the truth came to light.

In between whining about classes, there were stories of battles, of near misses and small victories, of allies made and enemies beaten back. Beneath comments on crushes both recent and past, there was talk of hopes and dreams for the future, for a life beyond the infamous teenage superhero of a small town that had no appreciation for his efforts, for his sacrifice. Buried below the log of everyday exploits after school at the Nasty Burger, details came of terrifying nightmares. Frenzied writing of twisting shadows, of blue fire and pained screams, of the coldest blood-red eyes, and a deep menacing laugh. Powers gone wrong, turning against him, against the people he loved the most. A life left wanting, always held back by his self-appointed duty of protecting a town that turned against him on a dime, dreams laying abandoned.

To the rest of the world, his diary was as shallow and uninteresting as the mask he showed to his peers. To the few who knew better, his diary offered a glimpse into a hero's mind, into the mind of the boy they'd based their lives around, and who still shut them away in order to protect them.

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**I figure Danny has to let out all his stress somewhere, and he definitely doesn't tell Sam, Tucker and Jazz EVERYTHING. He's too overprotective of them.**

**I hope you enjoyed! Please review!~**


	4. Accident

**AN: So I know it's been a while, but I've been getting over a nasty cold that refuses to leave me be. Sorry bout that.**

**Disclaimer: I will probably never own Danny Phantom, not at this rate.**

**Character: Sam(main), Danny/Jazz/Tucker(background)**

**Opening Line: "The accident wasn't her fault."**

* * *

The accident wasn't her fault. They were sure to remind her constantly. _**It wasn't her fault.**_

Jazz laid the blame on her parents. That they'd built such a dangerous machine on a whim in their own home was bad enough, but leaving the lab unattended so that three teens could easily slip in and out? She was amazed that something _worse_ hadn't happened, that they hadn't accidentally blown themselves sky high. She knew their insane obsession with ghosts would cause something catastrophic one day, and they were lucky that things had turned out as well as they had.

It wasn't her fault that Jack and Maddie Fenton seemed to have no common sense when it came to their profession.

Tucker laid the blame on their curiosity. They were teenagers, he told her, it was in their nature to poke around and find trouble. It wasn't really their fault that they hadn't expected to find _so much_ trouble. And really, what had the elder Fentons expected, leaving the door unlocked like they did? They never even blinked at the sight of the four in the lab anymore, taking their presence for granted and letting them do as they pleased. And there was a small, dark corner of his mind. One he would never admit to having, that whispered of Danny's guilt as well. Sam hadn't forced him into anything, he could've said no, could've grown a backbone instead of bending to the whims of a pretty girl.

It wasn't her fault that the Fentons were careless and that Danny bended so easily to peer pressure.

Danny, of course, laid the blame on himself. He consoled her, saying that he shouldn't have bowed so easily to her suggestion. She hadn't dragged him kicking and screaming into the portal, he'd made the decision to put on the jumpsuit and climb inside. He'd been the one to foolishly lean on the switch without bothering to look first. He'd been the one begging them afterward to not say a word to anyone, to keep it to themselves. Besides, he said, a grin breaking out, look how much good had come out of it. How many people were protected from the frequent ghost attacks now that Phantom was around to guard the city. How many opinions they'd been able to sway after the Pariah Incident, hopefully getting people to consider the idea of benign or even friendly ghosts.

It wasn't her fault that he was afraid to stick up for himself, even against his best friends.

They all consoled her and assured her of her innocence. But they didn't understand.

They didn't live with the guilt day in and day out, the initial fear that she'd accidentally killed her friend, the later terror after seeing him come back from fights scratched and bruised and broken nearly in half. It didn't eat them up inside the way it did her, because they were all so dead set on being flippant about it, as if they were just kids playing pretend on a sunny day.

They refused to acknowledge the fact that what they were doing, what Danny was doing, was stupid, and dangerous, and they were all in way over their heads. She thought Tucker might have opened his eyes after the Pariah Incident, when they heard just what exactly that battle suit would do to Danny, but he'd reverted to the same joking geek, closing his mind against the horrible possibility, _**probability**_, of his best friend's death.

But they couldn't just back out now, they were in too deep. Valerie was incredible, but she was just one human girl. Even with Vlad's "donations" she wasn't able to fight the ghosts on equal terms like Danny could. His parents had made it their life's work to hunt down ghosts, but that didn't mean that Jack wasn't still a bumbler, and Maddie would never work alone.

So she sucked it up, put on a brave face, and saved the guilt and the self-hatred for the privacy of her bedroom, because Danny needed her to be strong.

But they couldn't ever tell her the accident wasn't her fault. Because it was.

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**...Yeah, Sam may have gotten more emo than I wanted her to here, but if it were me, I know I'd have a complex about basically half-killing my best friend/crush. I'm just saying. Also I'd like to give credit to Elisabeth Hill for helping me with Tucker, who refused to pitch his two cents in.**

**Hope you enjoyed, and please review~!**


	5. Puzzle

**AN: I had a flash of inspiration today! Yay!**

**Characters: Maddie, Danny(secondary)**

**Opening line: "It wasn't only the smell of coffee that made her wonder."**

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It wasn't only the smell of coffee that made her wonder. Then again, it certainly didn't assuage her curiosity, either.

No, it was the little things, the small quirks he'd picked up that had come out of nowhere one day. Like the way he was so quick to tense when she held a weapon, as if he expected her to point and fire. Or how he dragged his friends down to the basement lab almost every day, when he'd been so uninterested before. The failing grades and the discipline problems could have easily been passed off, explained away as normal teen rebellion. Somehow, though, that felt wrong to her.

No, there was something else at fault, something not as obvious. Something powerful enough to hold sway over her boy, to keep him up in the dead of night, lost in the haze of his own sleep-deprived mind.

Maddie watched her son, _her Danny,_ stumble through the shadowy kitchen, his bleary eyes fixed on the slowly brewing coffeepot. All the while feeling as if she's missing the final piece of the puzzle that he's become.

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**Hope you enjoyed!~**


	6. Doubt

**AN: So today's been horribly hectic, but I managed to get this written while waiting on my dad's prescriptions. :D**

**This is set during D-Stabilized, going a little off-canon and pretending that Valerie left Danny alone for a minute while he was strung up, maybe to get more weapons.**

**Characters: Danny, Valerie**

**Opening line: "He watched, helpless, as the door closed behind her."**

* * *

He watched, helpless, as the door closed behind her. He could still hear Dani's cries above him; whether they were of pain or rage, he couldn't tell. None of this was right. Valerie wasn't this cruel, this cold. She couldn't be so heartless as to just let a human girl be tortured and destroyed.

'_...Or maybe she could. Maybe her employer's mania has influenced her for too long, frozen her heart towards anything related to the ghostly world she hates._'

No! No, he couldn't start thinking like that. Valerie was obsessive, yes, more obsessive than half the ghosts he fought. And sure, she despised ghosts with a passion, but she'd never let that poison her morality. Valerie would _never _harm a human, even if they were part-ghost.

'_But she has no problem using one as bait to lure her straight to you. She was fine with handing Dani off to Vlad with the knowledge that she'd be killed, as long as she got what she wanted._'

Danny pulled harder at his restraints, the distant screams echoing through the ventilation system. He'd talk to Valerie when she came back, convince her to let him stop Vlad, whatever it took. Even if he had to offer himself up as a test subject, he'd make her see sense, before she did something she'd regret for the rest of her life. He'd get her to understand.

For Dani's sake, he had to.

* * *

**Poor Danny's starting to second guess his ex's morality.**

**Hope you enjoyed!~**


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